May the Fourth may be over, but for Star Wars fans in Los Angeles, the countdown is just beginning. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has officially revealed Star Wars in Motion, the museum’s inaugural cinema exhibition opening alongside the highly anticipated cultural institution on September 22, 2026, in Exposition Park. The announcement gives fans their clearest look yet at what will become one of the most anticipated museum openings in Los Angeles this year.
The exhibition centers on movement, machinery, and cinematic world-building across the first six Star Wars films created by George Lucas. Rather than focusing only on characters or costumes, Star Wars in Motion explores how vehicles, props, and industrial design helped define the feeling of the galaxy itself—from dusty desert speeders to massive transport ships and combat machines engineered for worlds audiences had never seen before.
Among the featured objects: Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and the first physical build of General Grievous’ Wheel Bike from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Original props, production illustrations, costumes, and vehicle concepts from across the saga will also be included, giving visitors a closer look at how practical effects, industrial design, and visual storytelling shaped one of cinema’s most influential franchises.
A Massive New Cultural Landmark for Los Angeles
Co-founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the Lucas Museum has spent years under construction inside Exposition Park, gradually taking shape as one of the city’s most ambitious cultural projects. Designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the futuristic structure rises across an 11-acre campus near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and California Science Center.
When the museum opens this September, visitors will enter more than 100,000 square feet of gallery space spread across over 30 inaugural installations featuring roughly 1,200 objects drawn from the museum’s founding collection. The broader museum explores narrative art across multiple forms—paintings, comics, photography, illustration, sculpture, and cinema—connecting visual storytelling traditions across generations and cultures.
The museum’s permanent collection includes more than 40,000 works, ranging from Norman Rockwell paintings and comic art to cinematic archives pulled directly from Lucasfilm.
Why ‘Star Wars in Motion’ Matters
For Star Wars fans, the exhibition lands differently because it focuses on the physical craftsmanship behind the films—the objects audiences remember instinctively, even decades later. The shape of a Landspeeder hovering across Tatooine. The mechanical aggression of Grievous’ Wheel Bike. The weathered textures, industrial surfaces, and practical builds that gave the original films their lived-in realism.
Inside the museum, those designs move from movie screen mythology into physical space.
And in Los Angeles—a city built on filmmaking—that transition feels especially fitting.
For more information and future ticket updates, visit:
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
Location: 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles
Hours: Official operating hours and ticket release details are expected to be announced closer to opening.
Photo credits: Photo courtesy of Lucas Museum
